December 5, 2011

A newly developed smudge repellent coating may save you the trouble of cleaning your smartphone

Touch smartphones and tablets are all the rage these days, but
there’s no denying the fact that working with them intensively makes a
real mess out of their fromnt glass panels. Some manufacturer apply some
kind of smudge-resistant coating to their screens to make cleaning
easier, but it’s not a perfect solution.

Scientist from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz
have stepped up with a claim that they have developed a new smudge
repellent coating that could eradicate the problem altogether.
The new coating consists of candle soot, coated with a 25nm-thick
silica shell and calcinated at 600°C in order to become transparent.
After silanization, the coating becomes superamphiphobic and remained so
even after its top layer was damaged by sand impingement.
In short, the new coating should be perfectly smudge (and oil) proof.
According to the researchers, the coating itself should be easy to
manufacture, so applying it to smartphones and tablets shouldn’t lead to
a significant increase in the production costs.
Are you happy about the seemingly imminent end of the smudgy screen
era? Or are you one of those guys that couldn’t care less about a few
fingerpints on their smartphone display? Source | Via